Production manager' in Comcast swindle pleads guilty in Montgomery County

COURTHOUSE — Known to law enforcement as the “production manager” or “second in command” in a $2.4 million Comcast cable swindling scheme, Philadelphia’s Richard Justin Spraggins pleaded guilty Thursday to a number of related crimes in Montgomery County Court.

According to court documents, Spraggins and more than two dozen individuals were involved in a year-long scheme in 2011 and 2012 against Comcast that affected thousands of customers. The operation reached customers throughout the Delaware Valley, including Montgomery, Philadelphia, Delaware and Bucks counties.

Alston Buchanan, the reported ringleader and Spraggins’ cousin, worked as a dispatcher for Comcast in from May 2007 to March 2008 and was familiar with the company’s billing system. He, Spraggins and a group of recruited friends allegedly promised Comcast customers they could lower their monthly bills in exchange for an up-front, one-time-only cash payment. The pitch worked, and more than 5,700 cable bills were altered.

Spraggins, 30, of the 600 block of Avon Road, pleaded guilty to being associated with corrupt organizations, theft of services, unlawful use of a computer and engaging in criminal conspiracy.

Advertisement

“They would access Comcast’s internal computer networks and were able to directly modify the promotional code on a person’s account and profited that way,” said Assistant District Attorney Jeremy Lupo. “It cost them nothing to modify it but they would charge the customers $150 or $200 for it.”

But while the scheme worked successfully for over a year — funding lavish vacations, private tables at nightclubs and globetrotting excursions — it wound up forcing Comcast to pass the costs onto their customers, Lupo said.

“Essentially, all customers ended up having to pay more money to make up for the loss,” he said.

Spraggins, described in the affidavit of probable cause as the “cousin and roommate of CEO Buchanan,” is the first to enter a plea in the scheme.

According to the affidavit, security officials for Comcast were tipped off to the scheme by a suspicious customer, and they launched an investigation into manipulations of the Comcast billing system.

A Comcast customer reported being approached by a person offering a substantial reduction in their cable bill for a fee of $200. That’s when investigators learned that large amounts of promotional discounts had been placed on customer bills, thereby substantially reducing the customer’s bill.

When investigators conducted a search of Spraggins’ home on April 27, 2012, they found a backpack containing eight spiral-bound notebooks containing a list of names, numbers and dollar amounts, all appearing to be a makeshift sort of bookkeeping ledger.

At the home, police seized laptop computers, a desktop computer, five high-end men’s watches and $100,000 in cash in a silver attaché case.

Police also found hundreds and thousands of dollars’ worth of debit card purchases linked to places like Kay Jewelers, Whisper Night Club, Southwest Airlines, Best Buy, Gucci, Topper’s Spa and a slew of area and Las Vegas casinos, among others.

Spraggins is scheduled to be sentenced in front of Common Pleas Judge Carolyn Carluccio, following a pre-sentencing investigation.